Professional Bio

Ash V. Elswick is a First-Generation Dual-Ph.D. student in Political Science and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Penn State University. Previously, they obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with minors in Music, LGBTQ+ Studies, and Women & Gender Studies from West Virginia University. During their undergrad, Ash helped start a non-profit located in Michigan focusing on mental health awareness and worked as a community organizer in another non-profit located in West Virginia. Here, they focused on harm reduction, houselessness, and abortion rights, aiding in writing municipal policy to help people achieve better accessibility for renting, and separately, achieve easier access to maternal and abortion care. These experiences working in their Appalachian community led to their current research interests. Ash’s research agenda focuses on the intersections of economic inequality, political behavior, and marginalized identities, with an emphasis on how impoverished rural communities experience and respond to political alienation. Across their projects, they investigate how social inequalities, along lines of class, gender, and race, affect who participates in politics, how they engage, and which institutions or organizations serve as conduits for their political representation and communication.